


Life, After

by nyny17



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-12
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-05-06 09:10:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5411114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyny17/pseuds/nyny17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life after "When Mindy met Danny".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life, After

Mindy has spent her day running around between Shulman and Associates and the hospital, delivering babies and meeting new patients for her clinic. 

Finally home for the evening, she’s eager to see her man. She walks in the door to see Annette in the kitchen cooking, with Leo playing at her feet. Mindy smiles as she hears Annette’s singing and is glad she doesn’t realize Mindy’s there. Leo’s banging on pans to the beat of his grandma’s tune. This sweet scene to welcome her home makes her heart happy. She exhales fully. Her son is happy. His grandma is too. Mindy’s day had been long and hard, but this homecoming makes it even more special. 

Startled seeing Mindy in the doorway, Annette interrupts her song and announces, “Leo, Mommy’s home!” And Leo’s head turns to Mindy and that chubby-cheeked smile full of dimples, melts Mindy’s heart. This smile keeps her going for days. She rushes to him, picks him up and smothers his face with kisses, hugging him tightly. Then joins Annette who has returned to her song and the two dance around the room with their favorite little boy. Leo’s face beaming at both of the women. He’s definitely the most important thing in this room, but also their lives. 

After a discussion of how the day went, Annette gathers her things, leaving Mindy to change clothes and get down on the floor and play with Leo talking at him incessantly, expecting responses that only come in form of gibberish. She laughs each time. 

When it gets close to Leo’s bedtime, Mindy takes Leo to the bathroom to give him his nightly bath. Watching him splash and play before she washes him and his hair, she enjoys this time with just the two of him, and her singing continues during all the play. There isn’t much silence when he’s awake. Talking or singing to him, Mindy’s always engaged. Leo looks at his mother adoringly, loving his personal songstress. He dances along with her. 

After rocking him and reading his favorite books, Leo is fast asleep, quickly, after his day of fun with his grandma and night spent with his mom. 

Mindy makes her way to the kitchen and finally has a chance to see what Annette left her for dinner. She has never asked for these dinners each night, but she assumes Annette wants to help her out, knowing she can’t cook and knowing she’s got her hands full with Leo alone. It’s a blessing she can’t even explain. 

Mindy moans into her meal, always delicious, always hitting the spot. To thank Annette, she leaves little notes around the kitchen: on the spice rack “Dinner was spicier than any of those men on Catholic Dating Online” :) , on the vegetable drawer in the refrigerator where the tomatoes are kept “I got to veg out eating your delicious meal! You’re the best, Grandma!" , and on the oven where the delicious bread is baked “This bread rose higher than Jesus Christ! See I know about Catholicism!” Annette won’t take a compliment face to face, so Mindy leaves them in these spots for Annette to find them throughout the day, hoping she realizes how much Mindy appreciates these meals. They do make Mindy’s life so much easier, and keeps her from eating popcorn and licorice for dinner each night. 

Once she cleans up the pots and dishes, Mindy heads to her couch. She checks her phone for the first time since returning home. 

Annette has sent her a picture of someone she thinks is creeping her on the train. “He’s cute! Did you get his number?” she replies. 

Peter has texted more of the fried food he’s trying tonight. “Please tell me you’re at least exercising to combat that nastiness.” 

Her mother has sent her several pictures and when she opens them, she gasps and tears spring to her eyes. A wedding sari, wedding jewelry, a dress Sonu is considering as the mother of the bride, and her father in his wedding outfit, looking so happy to be part of the planning. 

Mindy stares at the pictures with tears streaming down her face. She hasn’t told them yet; she just can’t do it. Is it because she’s embarrassed? That she doesn’t want to upset them? That she hopes things change? 

It’s too much for her to consider right now in her exhausted state. 

She scrolls to see if there’s any more messages. But again, there is no message from Danny. She finds his name in her phone and sees all the messages she's sent him with no responses. Just pictures of Leo, at least one for every day since she moved out. She looks for the video she took from the bath tonight where Leo is dancing and dumping a cup of water over his head. It’s adorable but she never knows if he appreciates these images. Is he happy to have pics of Leo daily or is it too painful of a reminder that he’s not there with them? She mutes the sound on the video, so he doesn’t have to hear her singing. As she pushes send, she says a little prayer that he’s doing well and that this text brings him happiness. 

Mindy places the phone on the coffee table on her way to get ready for bed. She brushes her teeth, washes her face, and decides to just lay down on the bed for a second before she gets her outfit prepared for work tomorrow. In her exhaustion she falls asleep there, almost instantly. Alone. 

A few minutes later, her phone buzzes finally, with a text from Danny. 

Just two words, but it's finally something. "Thank you."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm no writer, which is why I can't do dialogue, but I see these little scenes and have to write them down. Thanks for reading.


End file.
